Second Live Viewer 2.0

After a long, long, long, long wait, the long promised / rumored Second Life Viewer 2.0 has arrived in Beta.  So I immediately downloaded it.

Just a couple of initial thoughts and questions and observations:

• Overall Viewer Layout
  • I am a huge fan of KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid.  My initial impression is that Linden Lab has made great strides with this viewer in respect to user interface.
  • I know a lot of the “old” residents will be moaning (they love to bitch ya know) about how things were laid out, but damn-it, just use it a bit before bitching.
• Where am I?
  • Initially entering the world, I could not “see” my avatar, instead I was a ghost.   It took over 3 minutes before I appeared.  If I was a first time user, I would not have been happy with rez time.
  • Question:  Why not make the avatar rez first priority with a client viewer?  At least you would know that you are there.  (Guess I must be “missing” some knowledge here.)

• Profile
  • It is a social world, so profiles are very important.  So my viewer 1.x profile picture is not the right size for 2.0.  PAIN IN THE ASS.
  • Question:  When should I migrate my picture size?
  • The home page tab is gone, so I need to do a rewrite of my profile so I can get Lost in Bananaverse linked.
• World Map
  • This is more important than we give it.  Where I am and where to go is very important.  I was impressed with the quicker rez time I got with world map.
• Appearance Tab
  • The old cliche that “Clothes makes the man” and as Mark Twain observed “Naked people have little or no influence on society.”  So I did think the clothes tab was a nice new feature.
• ‘Land Media”
  • When I first entered Second Life with the new viewer, the music was blaring on my land and I could NOT find the speaker icon.  After six minutes of hunting and pecking the tool bar, I “found” it in the upper right hand part of the screen.
  • Now that I have found it, I have no problem with it being there.
• “Shared Media”
  • When working with corporate clients, one of the main obstacles to integrating real world and virtual world presentations was the lack of support for flash.  With Viewer 2 this issue goes away.  I have not played with it enough to give it a proper evaluation.
  • This video from Linden Lab talks about “Shared Media.”

• Camera Control
  • I use this feature for building non stop so the new interface was interesting to check out.  Initial impression is once I remember to “switch” the controls it will be fine.
• Chat and Messaging
  • I need to use these more to understand the new usage.  “Seeing” peoples pictures next to their chat is interesting but I wonder this new feature will work in large chat areas and if it will contribute to lag.  AND can I turn off this option?
• Shadows
  • There must be some command for shadows but I did not see it.

• Random Issue with Sculpties
  • I have NEVER been a fan of sculpties due to their rez time and how the avatars interact with them.  I noticed that my avatar was clearly floating above some sculpties.

• Overall Initial Impression
  • User interface is show stopper, keep it simple and easy.  To ‘much” initial geek will prevent mass adoption.  This viewer is a step forward.
  • I will be doing some stress testing on the viewer over the next few weeks to see how it handles my usage.